Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries and never will, but I do own Charlene Davis and Megan Swann and any other characters I come up with.
Author's Note: Hope you love the updated version! :D
Freaked out by the message she got, well not freaked out but definitely worried, Charlene decided to go back to the house. She used the excuse of wanting to get an early start on dinner. If Jenna wasn't cooking, usually Charlene was the one to cook. It was one of the things she was taught by her dad. Grayson Gilbert was an amazing cook.
Charlene could remember vividly, watching her father cook as she and Elena played with their toys while her mother settled down on the couch with a glass of wine, just watching him with so much love in her eyes. It was one of those moments that was going to stick with her forever.
As she headed out, Charlene noticed Stefan out on the football field and stifled a laugh. Well, she guessed he changed his mind about trying out. She shook her head, fixing her bag over her shoulder. While she walked the sidewalk, Charlene saw from the corner of her eye a familiar blue driving alongside her. Damon. She couldn't help but groan to herself.
"Hey there." Damon greeted with a smirk on his face. Charlene tried to ignore him. "Oh come on, don't ignore me. You know it won't last long."
"Fine. What do you want?" Charlene asked, not looking at him as she crossed her arms.
"I was just wondering if you wanted a ride home, it's not safe to walk by yourself."
Charlene rolled her eyes. "No thanks. I'm good. Besides, I don't think Caroline would like that."
"Oh, she'll be okay. She'll just be glad I'm getting along with her friends." Damon smirked again. Charlene finally looked over at him and his smirk turned into a smile. "So, come on, let me give you a ride home. It's the least I can do."
Charlene knew she shouldn't, but she found herself saying yes anyway. "Alright…fine."
With that, Damon stopped the car and she opened the passenger door, sliding inside. She put on her seatbelt as he started driving again. Charlene didn't know why she even said yes, but this was better than walking all the way home.
"Um, I like your car." She commented, wanting to break the silence.
"Mm, thanks. It gets me around."
Charlene caught the underlining suggestion and she snorted a little.
"What?" Damon asked, amused as he stared at her from the corner of his eye.
"I bet you use that line with all the girls." Charlene said, rolling her eyes.
This made him smirk. "Only pretty blondes."
Charlene flashed him an annoying look. "You're unbelievable." Though her heart did flutter a little bit at the 'pretty' part.
His smirk widened. "Thank you."
"It's not a compliment."
"Then I'll just take as one."
Charlene rolled her eyes again. She seemed to do that a lot around him and she hadn't even known him that long. There was a silence again. Luckily though, she didn't feel the need to fill the silence because they were finally at her house.
"Thanks for the ride." Charlene said, grabbing her bag. Before she could get out of the car, she felt Damon grab onto her arm. "What?"
"About that text message you got."
Her eyes met his. "What about it?"
"Well, you were probably wondering how I got your number…"
Charlene shrugged uncaringly. "No…not really."
Damon looked like he didn't believe her, but he said nothing about as he went on. "I got it from Caroline…I thought maybe we could be friends…your best friend is dating my brothers, so it would be good for both of us if we got along. What do you think?"
She said nothing for a moment. "Okay…we can be friends." Even if he was the most annoying person in the world, he made a good point.
Damon smiled. "Good…bye Charlene." He said as she got out of his car.
Before she headed inside, Charlene turned back around. "Hey, um, we're having a 'get to know you' dinner tonight, so maybe you can come and you can bring Caroline, if you want to come…or not. Whatever." She chuckled nervously.
"Okay."
"Okay? Okay, great." Charlene smiled as she brushed her hair out of her face. "See you tonight." With that, she went inside the house. She went into the kitchen where she saw Aunt Jenna. "Hi Jenna." Charlene greeted as she sat her bag on the counter.
Stefan Salvatore returned home from football tryouts. He had made the team. Though he had been adamant about not trying out, he changed his mind about it, deciding it would be a good thing. He did come back to Mystic Falls for a fresh start and to make new friends, so why not try out for the football team? Besides, he could spend more time with Megan. He needed to learn more about her.
Stefan entered his bedroom. To his dismay, there was Damon, sitting on his reading chair with his legs propped up on the desk and Stefan's journal in his hands while he flipped through the pages.
"How were the tryouts?" Damon questioned with a smirk, his eyes still trained on the pages of his diary. "Did you make the team? Very Emerson, the way you reveal your soul with so many…adjectives."
Stefan stormed over and ripped the diary out of his hands. Damon held his hands up as he glared at him.
"What are you doing here?" Stefan demanded.
Damon stood up to his feet. "I've come to apologize." He answered, standing in front of Stefan. "I've been doing some thinking, some soul searching, and…I want us to start over. We need to put the past behind us. You're my little brother, and if you want to live a normal, happy human life, then I want that for you. Maybe I can do it, too. That I can learn to be a non-living living person. Maybe there's hope for both of us." He tried to keep a straight face, but failed.
Stefan sighed to himself. "You know, it doesn't have to be this way, Damon.
"Of course it doesn't," Damon agreed. He smirked. "I saw Megan today, BTW. That means, 'by the way" He ignored the way Stefan's body tensed at the mention of his girlfriend's name. "She was at cheerleading practice…she looked so perky in her little short shorts. And Elena…wow she looked good with her pom-poms…and Charlene…" He trailed off. "I couldn't take my eyes off of her." Stefan glared at him hard and he held out his hands in a surrender pose with the smirk still on his face. "Simmer down, I didn't go near them." Except for Charlene, but Stefan didn't need to know that…at least not yet. "Besides, I've got my own cheerleader, ooh that reminds me… I got to run. I have a date. Sweaty palms…wish me luck."
Watching him leave, Stefan rolled his eyes before heading to the bathroom to take a shower.
Eventually, Elena, Megan, and Bonnie showed up to help Charlene with dinner.
Megan seriously hoped this worked out. She didn't want her sister to not get along with her new boyfriend. Bonnie's approval meant the entire world to her. So, hopefully, Charlene's dinner idea worked.
"Don't worry about it." Charlene tried to assure her as she chopped up the vegetables. "This is going to work and if it doesn't, you can blame it on me. Or blame it on the food." She offered at the end, jokingly.
Megan giggled. "Right, I'll remember that." She sighed, leaning against the counter. "I just want Bonnie to like him."
"And she will, just give her time." Charlene said as she patted her best friend on the shoulder. "Stefan's not that hard to like…unlike that brother of his." She mumbled to last part, but Megan heard and she stared at her blonde friend, wondering what that was about.
"I hope so." Megan said before going over to Elena and Bonnie.
"You explain it." Bonnie was saying to Elena in an exasperated tone. "Last night, I'm watching Nine-o, a commercial break comes on, and I'm like, I bet it's the phone commercial. And sure enough, it's that guy and the girl with the bench, he flies to Paris and flies back. They take a picture."
"Oh come on." Elena pressed. "That commercial's on a constant loop."
"She's got a point there, Bon." Megan agreed, popping a grape in her mouth from the nearby bowl. Though she was all for Bonnie finally believing that she was a witch, she wasn't gonna try and force her. Maybe it was best for her sister to stay in the dark about it.
"Fine. Well, what about this? Today, I'm obsessed with numbers. 3 numbers. I keep seeing 8, 14, and 22. How weird is that?"
"Maybe we should play the lottery." Elena joked. Charlene chuckled from where she was, but then the brunette turned serious. "Have you talked to your Grams?"
"She's just going to say it's because I'm a witch." Bonnie said, whining a little. "I don't want to be a witch. Do you want to be a witch?" The question was to Elena.
"I don't want to be a witch."
"Oh come on, I think it would be cool to be a witch." Megan announced, and they looked at her. "At least, you'd be a hot witch." She took another grape and put it in her mouth as she moved over to put the to-go food she bought with her into a bowl. She wanted to bring something for the dinner since Charlene was doing this for her.
"And putting it in a nice bowl isn't fooling anybody." Bonnie told her.
"It might." Megan countered back, but knew it was a bad comeback. She decided to brush it off as Elena searched for something.
"Okay, serving spoons…where are the serving spoons?" Elena muttered.
"Middle drawer on your left." And it was exactly what Bonne said they were.
Elena stared at her for a moment, then shook her head. "Okay, so you've been in this kitchen a million times."
"Yeah, that's it."
The doorbell rang and Megan perked up. "He's here!" she squealed as she whirled around to face Bonnie and told her, "Be nice." Then she rushed towards the front door. Charlene, Elena, and Bonnie shared amused looks.
Megan got to the front door and opened it, revealing Stefan on the other side. She beamed.
"Stefan! You're here!
He smiled. "Hey. And of course, I told you I would be."
"Well, come in! Dinner should be ready soon." Megan beamed at him again as she turned around to head towards the kitchen, missing Stefan slowly stepping inside, making sure he could.
Before they knew it, dinner was underway and it wasn't what Megan expected. It was all kinds of awkward with Bonnie not even making eye contact with Stefan, deciding to keep her gaze on her food.
"See, told you everything would be okay." Charlene whispered to her.
Megan shook her head. "It's still early…" she mumbled, poking at her carrots.
"So, Stefan, did Tanner give you a hard time today?" Elena asked, gathering everyone's attention.
"Well, he let me on the team, I must have done something right."
Megan smiled at that. "I thought you did great. Tanner would have been stupid not to let you on the team." He smiled back and her smile widened as she turned to Bonnie. "Bon, you should have seen Stefan today, Tyler threw a ball right at him, and…"
Bonnie cut her off. "Yeah, I heard."
Megan flinched but went on. "Hey, why don't you tell him about the witches in our family?" she suggested, trying to find a topic they could talk about…and that was the first thing that came to mind. Stefan glanced at her. "Yeah, we have a long line of witches in our family. It's pretty cool."
Bonnie gave her a look. "Cool isn't the word I'd use."
Stefan leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "Well, it's certainly interesting." He agreed. "I'm not too versed, but I do know that there's a history of Celtic druids that migrated here in the 1800s."
"They came from Salem."
"Really?" He sounded surprised. "Salem witches?"
Bonnie nodded. "Yeah."
"I would say that's pretty cool."
It was her sister's turn to be surprised. "Really? Why?"
"Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity."
Bonnie smiled and Megan did too, happy to see her sister actually smiling in front of Stefan. "Yeah, they are."
The doorbell rang again.
Elena frowned. "I wonder who could that be."
Charlene was the one who stood up, rather quickly as she left the dining room. Wanting to see who it was that had her friend excited, Megan followed her friend to the front door. She watched with close eyes as Charlene seemed to fix herself up before she opened the door. Damon was on the other side with Caroline right beside him, holding up a cake with a bright smile on her face.
"Surprise!" She exclaimed brightly. "Bonnie said you were doing dinner, so we brought dessert. Oh! And Charlene, Damon said you invited us to come too, that was so sweet of you." Caroline smiled again, handing over the cake to Charlene as she stepped inside the house.
"Uh yeah." Charlene blushed. Megan stared at her. When did that happen?
"Yeah, it was very sweet." Damon smirked. Just then, Stefan showed up and he didn't look very happy to see Damon. "Hello brother."
"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked stiffly.
"Charlene invited me." Damon answered, smirking again in Charlene's direction. "And I'm waiting for her to invite me in."
With that, Charlene seemed to realize he was still outside. "Oh! Right, yeah, come…"
Stefan cut her off, startling her. "No, no, no." He said quickly. "He can't, uh…he can't stay. Can you Damon?"
Caroline spoke up before the other Salvatore could answer. "Get in here." She ordered in the most Caroline way possible.
"We're just…finishing up." Stefan tried again.
"Yeah we were, but it's okay." Charlene assured. "We still have desert, well now we do." She smiled in Caroline's direction at the blonde beamed back at her. "Thank you, Care." Then she turned towards Damon. "Come on in."
He smirked as he stepped inside, his shoulder brushing against Charlene. "You and Elena have lovely home."
"Thank you." Charlene led Damon and Caroline to the dining room, leaving Megan and Stefan alone.
Stefan was the first to speak. "How did Damon know about this?" he asked.
Megan shrugged. "I don't know…I think Charlene invited him or something."
That was all the answer she could give because it was the truth. She had no idea why Char would invite him after that unpleasant first meeting. Megan figured her best friend had a good reason to ask him, which was something she was going to ask about after the dinner party.
TBC...
In...
Friday Night Bites, Part 3